Chairman’s Notes vs Walsham

Today we welcome the Willows to the Riverside for our first encounter for three years. We last played WLW on 23 Dec 2023, where two goals from Jarid Robson and one from Tanner Call saw us prevail by three goals to one, the Walsham reply coming through Charlie Norman. Today, we have Ryan Dunne in goal who played in that match for Walsham and I expect Walsham will field Tommy Robinson, who played for Mildenhall in that fixture. I must congratulate Walsham Le Willows for embarking on their 20th consecutive season in the Eastern Counties Premier League. With the way clubs move up and down these days, that really is some feat, and no other club in the league comes close to that length of time in one division. We have played Walsham 32 times in that period, 16 out of 20 seasons, having spent 4 seasons in the Isthmian League.

Speaking of the Isthmian League, I would like to extend a heart welcome to Roger Reed, the President of the Isthmian League, who is presenting the club with the Respect award from last season in that league. I personally am not in favour of the respect table, as we got hammered the season before with a over a thousand pounds of penalties, for offences deemed to be disrespect to the officials. Still, with Mildenhall’s greatest ever signing captaining that side, I was not surprised. So well done to last years team, you refrained from giving the officials your opinions, and we got something out of what was in reality, a pretty shoddy season.

Well, what an exciting start to the season, an enthralling 3-3 draw at Yarmouth last Saturday was followed up by a magnificent 4-1 victory over Haverhill Rovers last Tuesday. Unfortunately, I missed it due to other commitments (moving and an important birthday) but by all accounts, it was the most exciting match here for a long time, and to beat Haverhill at all is commendable, so to win by such a margin really sets us up for a good season.

The buzz seems to be back at Mildenhall, it had been missing for a while, but it is back.

So, lets get behind the team, we had a crowd of 240, so lets keep on coming, try and get over 200 every game. It really does make everybody feel the effort is worth it, when people turn up in numbers to watch the football. Let’s be honest, what is there better to do really?

We are really making an effort to reset this club into a sustainable vehicle going forward.

The EJA setup is growing, the youth set up is growing, the U18s are back, and the first team is doing the club proud…Now we need you to do your part. (I know you do already of course for which we are extremely thankful).

Let’s look for another exciting game today, no matter the result, and just enjoy it.